Fundamental ShortCummings

I recently finished watching 'The Sopranos' (highly recommend by the way) and it's an interesting insight into Mafia culture in the modern world. The idea of being a "rat" as the worst thing you can ever be is interesting, especially given how common a thing it has become in the advent of the witness protection programme and the rise of FBI influence since the 1960s. The Mafia is full of rats, but the code still stands. And it is punishable, deservedly, by death, members would say.

I think the fascinating thing about the Mafia and why we love movies and TV shows about them, is the strict code of honour and conduct that they have, when simultaneously being violent criminals and cold-blooded murderers. Historically, it grew out of the poor in Italy being so oppressed by the corrupt rich that they had to turn to crime, and made their own moral code. That seems to make sense, but what it has become is a bastardised excuse for what are, at the end of the day, cruel and self-serving people.

Which brings me nicely to the UK Government and the rise and fall of Dominic Cummings. In the same way the early Mafia could claim their moral code is justified, here's a man who claims to be fundamentally "anti-establishment," and tried to reform government , he claims, but was stopped in his tracks by Boris Johnson and his cronies. A man who made Brexit happen, a champion of the democracy and what the “real people” of the country actually want. He was famously ruthless in his methods throughout the whole campaign. This is how he has portrayed himself in recent months and in his recent interview, when he has blown the whistle on Johnson's apparent wrongdoings and leaking comments and poor policy-making in "revenge" for being forced out of number 10. You could claim, therefore, that Cummings' actions aren't those of a "rat" because he is simply attacking the establishment. But this is where I disagree. See, all these revelations about the man's apparent character are, from where I'm standing, carefully constructed in the wake of his betrayal by the very people he claims he was never in cahoots with. The very man who stood by him when the entire country was calling for his head after the Barnard Castle incident.

Yes, the crooked and corrupt organisation in this whole saga is the UK Government. But Cummings is not the Sicilian Mafia, resisting them with his own ruthless and moral code, he is one of them. He was forced out and he wants revenge. The only person he has ever been interested in serving is himself. He isn't a whistleblower. He's a grass. A “rat.” The modern mafia use that term because a rat will chew through literally anything to save itself. And that is what Cummings has done. A whistleblower is somebody who sees corruption in their organisation and feels a moral need to do something; think Watergate or the more controversial WikiLeaks. The problem with this view Cummings seems to have of himself is that his narrative seems to ignore the big bit in the middle where he is threatening to expose these things if he doesn't get his own way. Blackmail. There's no moral compass at play here, only the compass of his self-serving soul.

So, he may have constructed an image of himself as a hero fighting the real villains, but all he is, at the end of the day, is a villain fighting for himself. And even when those he has betrayed are as bad as him, and deserve all the repurcussions of his leaked information, there's something a bit off-putting about a man who's not only became a "rat" when things stopped going his way, but has consciously tried ever since to make it appear that he is the total opposite. I'm not saying he should be "whacked," but maybe the long line of his next potential employers should see him for what he is. Although, let's face it, many of them will probably see it as a plus. Such is life. If there's one positive thing about the Mafia, it's that they wouldn't want anything to do with Dominic Cummings.